Lightning is Scary (Read 844 times)

Checked radar before going out for a night run after work, looked like their was a storm but it appeared to be diminishing and moving away. Got out about 2.5 miles and was like "hmm, there is ALOT of lightning, and the rain is picking up...I better turn around." Within a mile or so I was getting buffeted by 40+ mph winds, mild hail, and some seriously driving rain. The real fun began about half a mile later when the lightning started going crazy. I was fairly panicked and heading full steam for the nearest shelter (mile and a half to go). In those 8 or 9 minutes I had at least 4 strikes within a couple hundred yards of me, and one that struck a tree no less than 60 or so feet off to my right. It was almost like a movie with me dodging lightning bolts from Zeus (I promise you it is NOT exciting like in the movies).

When I got to the shelter I counted for one minute and there was well over 100 strikes. All I can say is that was one hell of a harrowing run.

Moral of the story: make damn sure there isn't a storm coming if you going to be going for a run where you can't take shelter. Oh, and that lighting is scary.

They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a Board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough" If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. "Don't fear moving slowly forward...fear standing still."

When I first moved to Indiana, I was unprepared for how fast storms can build here and how powerful even very small cells can get. I went out for a run one day without checking radar, it was sunny. A couple small little gray clouds off in the distance with a few thunder rumbles but it didn't look like much. Got 3 miles from the house and the sirens in the little town east of me started going off. It still looked like nothing so I kept going (that little harmless cell had already dropped a tornado).

I get 4 miles out and a cop pulls up alongside, slows, then drives ahead and parks on the side of the road, facing west. After the fact I am infuriated, because it turns out a tornado was approaching, he was sent out into the path to spot it, and he didn't tell someone out running in the middle of a rural area to take cover!

Well this made me nervous and around 5 miles the sirens started going off again so I turned around and picked up the pace a bit on the way home. Still clear blue sky. By now I was suspicious and checking the western sky...nothing. Finally at 2 miles I heard a "growl", looked west, and this big, ugly green storm was building over the horizon with a speed I have never seen before or since. Fortunately this was back when I was in shape...I made it the 2 miles back to my house in <10min. I made it back in the front door and was trying to close it when 70+mph wind, marble/pingpong ball hail hit. About the time I was doing that, and F2 tornado passed 2 miles south of the house and cut across my run route about 12-13 minutes behind me.

Moral of the story, wen the wether is unstable here I a) check the radar, b) run loops close to the house so I can bail if things start to loook ugly, or c) just stay on the treadmill.

"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

I've yet to have a lightning storm that really scared me...but at least 1 probably should have. Like Spaniel I live in an area where storms can be unpredictable. I always look at the radar before heading out, but there have been many times when the radar looked clear and a storm built out of nothing over the lake. I did one memorable 6 mile run where I did a pretty hard tempo run for the last 2 miles. About a mile from home a car pulled over and asked if she could drive me home. I assured her that I was almost home, as was. Her car looked brand new and the last thing I wanted to do was put my soaked mess on her upholstery. I did feel like I was outrunning bolts that day. It was sorta invigorating...and dumb.

We recently got caught out on our bikes maybe 8 miles from home, too...that was a storm that came in about 2 hours earlier than expected. Fortunately the lightning wasn't super close, but the temperature dropped and the rain made us very underdressed. We had our 11 year old rugrat on the back of the tandem and he was pretty miserable. We pedaled hard to get warm, as much as to get away from the potential for being zapped.

Ooh, I just remembered one other really scary one. We were on bikes with a group during this very storm (right smack in the middle of that cloud...the video shows the southern edge) a couple of years ago. I don't recall lightning, but the winds were insane. I was able to get to our destination before the worst hit, but I finished that ride with a wet leaf plastered to my face. Hail came down HARD just seconds after I got into shelter (some of the group ended up back from the front pack and found an awning to stand under for the whole 10 minutes of the storm). We had stopped for ice cream about 10 miles from our destination (at a stand maybe 2 miles from where the video was shot). To the West there were really ominous clouds, so my hubby pulled out his phone to look at the radar...with one massive red/orange blob headed right towards us. Needless to say we inhaled our ice cream and pacelined hard to get back to our destination--it was a Sunday, so not many businesses were open where we could take shelter.

'16 Goals:

• Do some dus...and some CX...and some tandem gravel...and some podiums...

Where in America does someone live in area of predictable storminess?....well, maybe Hawaii

Point taken, but certain geographies are set up for particularly quick-building storms. Where I grew up in MI, it was cooler than here and the storms tended to be weaker and slower. Zoomy lives near Lake MI, where fronts crossing the lake (particularly when it is warm) can pull in a huge bolus of moisture and build quickly.

Where I live now is technically Tornado Alley. Violent storms can pop out of seemingly nowhere if the conditions are right...which is not uncommon...and wind speeds tend to be much higher. I was shocked when I moved here, it was unlike anything I experienced living further north.

"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

Where in America does someone live in area of predictable storminess?....well, maybe Hawaii

Central and Southern Florida - every afternoon between noon and 5pm in the Summer! Used to live there. The cloud build ups are very consistent prior to a storm.

"When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up against them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels." Ezekiel 1:21

Point taken, but certain geographies are set up for particularly quick-building storms. Where I grew up in MI, it was cooler than here and the storms tended to be weaker and slower. Zoomy lives near Lake MI, where fronts crossing the lake (particularly when it is warm) can pull in a huge bolus of moisture and build quickly.

"Lake effect" is no joke (just ask the poor souls who have been on sailboats when stuff's flared-up. Lost masts are not rare). Derechos are scary. I grew up on the other side of Lake MI and weather downwind of the Green Bay was much tamer and less erratic than what we get on this side of the big lake. Lightning storms are much more violent in these parts, too. And we get way bigger snowfalls (except for this past year...which I didn't mind one bit). Most big storms fizzle a lot once they go over us, though. Our weather here is frequently more drastic and erratic in nature to what they get 30 miles East of us.

'16 Goals:

• Do some dus...and some CX...and some tandem gravel...and some podiums...